Second Nature
by herwhiteknight
Summary: Max is a snoop and discovers that Chloe has many pairs of men's underwear. She decides to confront her about it.


A/N: I don't really have words to explain this one. I've been wanting to write a genderfluid!Chloe for a little while now, but didn't know where to start. Then I just came up with this (because, of course the first time I write genderfluid!Chloe it was gonna be a pricefield fic) and just kinda started writing. I honestly don't know what's going on in this fic, but I hope you guys enjoy! I definitely plan to write more for genderfluid!Chloe (and hopefully the next fic isn't as random and as pointless as this one). Enjoy!

(also) Disclaimer: I know _shite_ about skateboarding. Had to wikipedia terms and stuff. So please forgive that, if it doesn't sound exactly right.

* * *

 _Joe Boxer._

Max had caught sight of the waistband of Chloe's underwear as she reached up to grab her skateboard from the highest shelf in the garage. "Why I put this damn thing up here in the first place...," Chloe muttered to herself, straining a little higher, revealing more of the thick waistband. _Men's underwear,_ Max realized as Chloe finally managed to latch onto the flat surface of the skateboard's deck.

"Chloe, why are you wearing boxers?"

"Got- huh, wha- shit!" she started triumphantly, before catching the tail end of Max's question. Startled, the board slipped from her grasp and she just narrowly avoided getting a concussion as she hopped up and down on one foot instead, swearing and clutching her toe.

"Shit, sorry Chloe," Max said ruefully, picking up the board and tucking it safely under her arm before Chloe could do further, more serious, damage to herself.

"Nah, it's good," she shrugged, blowing off Max's concern as she held one hand out for her skateboard, and tried to covertly tug her jeans up higher around her waist with the other.

"Uh...," Max started, her eyes glancing downwards at Chloe's failed attempts at subtlety. "Um, look, it's totally cool if you wear boxers-"

"Just forget about it okay?" Chloe snapped, dropping her hand as she gripped the board tighter, her fingertips whitening around the skull-and-crossbone design set in between the wheels. "I'm gonna go test this baby out with the guys. It's been too long. I'll see you around Max."

"Sure, uh...," Max said, "Bye... Chloe," she finished to an empty door slam. Chloe was long gone. And had left Max alone in her house. She cringed a little at her rising excitement and nerves. But she was curious as hell. _Ask for forgiveness later,_ she thought as she darted up the stairs towards Chloe's room, _Snoop now._

* * *

Chloe hadn't been out skating with the guys in _ages._ She'd almost forgotten why she'd stopped. _Oh yeah,_ she rolled her eyes as she rolled towards the skate park, _Expelled, then my best friend comes out of nowhere, then there's a tornado and Ra-_ She grimaced and shook her head as she popped up onto some rails and slid down them into the concrete bowl of the park. _That_ was the main reason she had quit so many months ago. Rachel's disappearance. And the main reason she was coming back now. To cope, she supposed. Among other things.

"Sup Justin," she greeted with a nod as she stepped off her board and kicked it up into her arm.

"Yo Chloe! Nice to see you still got the moves," Justin grinned as he nodded behind her, indicating the rail slide she had just done.

"Yeah. Guess it's still second nature. Or, something," she shrugged, tossing him a high five even as she popped back onto her board again.

"Well let's see how good second nature compares!" he laughed, pushing off and zooming past her to the ramps.

"You're on. I can beat you and your boy's asses any day of the week!" she smirked and ollied just for the fun of it before kicking off after him, ignoring his call of "Show off!"

..

After several hours of jumps and tricks and slides and getting "hella air", Chloe dropped her board on its side as she hit the pavement with a hard thump, shedding her jacket as Justin rolled up by her feet. "Wiped already? So weak," he jeered playfully.

"Shove it, asshole," she jabbed back, stomping her foot onto the tail of his board, causing him to swear and trip onto the concrete.

"So what's the deal?" he asked without preamble as he set his board next to Chloe in a similar fashion before hunkering next to her, reaching into his jacket for a joint.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice tight as she accepted the first drag.

"C'mon. You haven't been here in ages. Then you show up for no reason and skate circles around us. What for?" he prodded her in the side lightly, but his tone was all seriousness.

"Shit man," Chloe laughed, a little uneasily, stealing one more puff before passing it back off. "Now I remember the reason I stopped hanging with you. You can read me too well."

"Yeah, so," Justin prompted again, taking a long pull on the joint before raising his voice an octave to do his best valley girl impression, "Spill the beans gurrrll."

She laughed. "Oh my god you're a moron," she said on one long exhale, leaning forward and settling her arms against her knees.

"Doesn't have anything to do with this," Justin's voice returned to normal as he snapped at the thick elastic of Chloe's boxers, "Does it?"

"Dude, what the fuck?!" she snarled and whipped around on him, almost knocking the joint out of his hand as he held them up in surrender.

"Yo, chill," and he offered her the rest of the joint.

She swatted it out of his hand and ground it out with her toe as she stood in one fluid motion. "Mind your damn business."

"Chloe, relax dude!" Justin called out as Chloe stalked away, board under her arm, too angry to skate. "We used to be friends man!"

Chloe tensed up at his last word. "Don't call me that."

* * *

Max had forgotten how long ago Chloe had left. She had assumed that Chloe meant for her to show herself out of the house once she had taken off to skate, but there was no way Max was going to pass up such a perfect opportunity to try and figure out what the hell was going on with her friend. _So she prefers to wear guy's underwear. Lots of girls probably do, right? No big deal,_ she reasoned with herself as she pulled open a couple of drawers until she found what she was looking for.

 _Jackpot,_ she grinned triumphantly as she picked up a pair while skimming the other brands with her eyes. _Calvin Klein, Hilfiger... Hanes.. shit,_ Max felt herself start to blush as she dropped the first pair and made a grab for a pair all the way in the back of the drawer, _Armani. Are you cereal?_

"Chloe.. what the hell are you doing with all these?" Max muttered to herself and she rooted around some more in the drawer, dropping and grabbing pairs as they piqued her interest. She almost had the entire drawer emptied around her feet when an unfamiliar brand name caught her eye. And it didn't appear to be underwear. At least, not the type that Max was used to, or currently had scattered around her feet. "A.. tank top?" she wondered aloud to herself, tracing a finger over the brand name. _Underworks..._

 _.._

And that's how Chloe found Max after throwing her skateboard haphazardly back into its storage space. With one of her drawers, as well as Max's mouth, gaping open, surrounded by all of her- "Shit, what the fuck Max?! What is your problem! I thought I told you to go home!" Chloe snarled as she started to snatch up all of her boxers and throw them hastily into their drawer. She'd organized them later. For now she'd just-

"Wait," she froze, finally catching sight of what Max had in her hands. _Her fucking binder._ "Uh.. hey that's.. you should just give that to me, like, seriously, please-"

"Why haven't you ever told me?!" Max asked as she bundled the binder up in one fist and shook it at her.

"T-tell you what?" Chloe laughed nervously, "Th-that's just a.. tank top. Mom got it for me for like, Christmas, ages ago, but.. damn, it's too small so I never wear it and that's the end of that story, yep!" she made to snatch at Max's hand, but Max was too quick. She bounded over to the bed with it and sat down.

"Don't play stupid with me Chloe. I may be a niave hipster and bullshit as pretty much _everyone_ likes to remind me," Max rolled her eyes as she shook out the binder and held it aloft, "But I know what a binder is when I see one," she paused, explaining at Chloe's questioning look, "Friend in Seattle. They were trying things out. I helped them find their first binder."

Chloe blinked at Max's knowledge first, then at Max's pronouns. The way she didn't even stumble over the neutral pronoun. Like it was just.. second nature. "Oh...," Chloe said slowly as she sunk onto the bed beside Max and held out her hand for the top. Max passed it over without hesitation this time.

But not without questions. "Seriously Chloe... why didn't you ever tell me?"

At this, Chloe couldn't suppress a snort. "Um, you've been living the same week I have, haven't you?"

Max tilted her head. "Touche. Fair point."

"And, come on," she reasoned, "It's just... it would've been too weird. With you coming back and... it's been five years and I just drop that on you? Hey Max, good to see you! Why don't you come on down for pancakes at the diner and we can catch up, oh and by the way I'm genderfluid!"

Max laughed a little and covered the hand that Chloe held the binder in with her own. "It's not weird. I'm glad you're figuring yourself out. I just wish I could've been back sooner, to help you with all this."

"Rachel she.. she helped a bit. Got me started. Figuring things out, I mean. Even went with me to pick out my first pair of boxers," she admitted shyly, and Max swore she caught Chloe's cheeks reddening. But before she could get a closer look, Chloe stood abruptly and shuffled through her drawer. "Aw man. Max, you messed up my system!"

"You, Chloe Price, master of being unorganized, and with a room like this," Max swept a hand around the dump that was Chloe's room, "Have a system for your _underwear_?"

"Yeah well," she shrugged and turned back to face Max as she held the pair of Armani underwear in one hand. There was no mistaking her blush now. "When something's special to me I.. like to take care of it."

Max bit her lip and smiled as she gazed up at her friend. "Rachel bought those for you?" she asked through a watery voice.

"Yeah uh.. nothing but the best," she kicked a toe at the ground, absently running a finger over the raised letters along the band.

"Put them on for me?"

Chloe jerked her head up at Max's soft request, and found nothing but support and love shining from Max's expression. "I... really?" she asked after swallowing hard past the lump in her throat that wasn't there. She wasn't about to cry. No way.

Max bit her lip again before nodding resolutely once. "Only if you want to."

"I.. yeah," Chloe nodded as well and, fuck it. She didn't care if Max saw her cry. "Sure I'll.. sure. I'll do that."

"This too? If you want?"

Chloe turned back around, expecting to see the binder held aloft in her hand. And finding it so. "I've never worn it before.. I... was saving it.. uh." The words _For Rachel_ hung in the air heavily before Max stood and pressed the binder into her free hand, before wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Whatever you want, okay?" Max reassured her from the crook of her neck.

"I'll be right back," Chloe breathed, her heart starting to race in excitement. She tripped to the bathroom and stripped hastily, knocking her knees and elbows against every corner and hard surface there was in that tiny room. She felt like she was trying on that first pair of Armani's, with Rachel waiting excitedly on the other side of the door, giggling while she held out for the grand reveal.

It wasn't exactly the same, of course. It wasn't her first pair and Rachel... well.. it was Max instead. And it was Max's first time seeing her standing proud in boxers that just felt _right_ to her.

And it was their first time together experiencing the effect of the binder.

After some wiggling and wriggling and some more smacking of elbows on shower doors, Chloe finally managed to slip into the binder. She ran her hands down her chest and, without looking into the mirror, she dashed back into her room. "I haven't looked," she explained breathlessly as Max looked up at her from the bed where she sat waiting.

Max's breath caught in her throat. "Chloe... you look amazing," she murmured as she traced her eyes up Chloe's torso, feeling pride well up inside of her. "How do you feel?"

"It's.. uh.. gonna take some getting used to," Chloe muttered, crossing her arms self-consciously over her chest as Max's eyes met hers, "I mean.. thing is damn difficult to put on, I'll say that much and, yeah, it's comfortable but I just-"

Max stepped towards her, and gently took Chloe's wrists and pulled her arms away from her chest before wrapping her in yet another hug. "We'll get used to it. Together."


End file.
